Dr. Joy Kategekwa

Dr. Joy Kategekwa is a respected international trade and investment lawyer with a firm conviction about Africa’s ability to prosper through efficient utilization of its vast assets. She has dedicated her 20-year career to structuring Africa’s trade policy, negotiations and industry landscape for sustainable development, and to ensuring that Africa’s integration into global trade is beneficial and wealth – creating. With a Ph. D In International Trade Law from the University of Berne’s World Trade Institute, and authorship of consequential books – like “Opening Markets for Foreign Skills: How Can the WTO help?”, she has distinguished herself as a thought and practice leader, and a front runner on knowledge – generation for trade – led economic integration, growth and prosperity. 

Dr. Kategekwa serves as Director of the African Development (AfDB) Bank Group’s Regional Integration Coordination Office – leading the team delivering the Bank’s transformative Integrate-Africa portfolio. Her vision in this role is to champion the design and financing of new – generation integrated multi-country operations that are industrialization - promoting. She is passionate about making integration a People’s Agenda and spearheads this, in part, through high – level policy dialogue to foster reforms towards integrating markets, finance, people, productive capacity and macroeconomic policies. Previously, she served as Regional Strategy Advisor to the UNDP Assistant Secretary General responsible for Africa, overseeing the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) portfolio, the HERAfCFTA Initiative, and the AfCFTA Futures Report. She is the Founding Head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Regional Office for Africa (Addis Ababa) – where she led the technical advisory teams on design of the AfCFTA. 

She is a seasoned negotiator with proven ability to secure deals on finance, investment and trade – and previously served as an official of the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization. She sits on the AfCFTA Secretary General’s Advisory Council on Trade, Investment and Industry; the Advisory Board of the African Journal on International Economic Law (AJIEL); and has served on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Trade and Investment (2018 – 2023). She is passionate about building the next generation of Africa’s trade law/policy practitioners and has spent over 15 years offering guest lectures on international trade, investment, regional integration and development at leading global centres of learning. She is a trained classical vocalist, a song – writer, and piano player. She is married and is the proud mother of 5 beautiful girls.